Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. End a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization abhors the decision of the North Carolina Coalition for Adoption Reform to drop its HB 445 equal access records bill and replace it with an amended bill (HB 445 2nd ed) that authorizes adoption agencies, for a hefty fee, to voluntarily act as Confidential Intermediaries. The CI system might have been "progressive" 45 years ago. But this is 2007. Outside of the adoption industry's extravagant fondness for perpetual control over the lives of its "clients" and love of the fast buck, there is no rationale for privatized child welfare businesses to act as state-mandated go-betweens for adult adoptees and their first families who are perfectly capable of responsible decision-making and relationship-building without their supervision.

HB 445 restored the right of adopted adults to access their own original birth certificates without interference from anyone. HB 445 2nd ed denies that right, by allowing the adoption industry to control and mediate the free flow of information between adults. To add insult to injury, there is still no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Original birth certificates remain sealed and unaccesible. If the National Council for Adoption didn't think up HB 445 2nd ed, it should have.

Bastard Nation endorsed HB 445 cautiously with the caveat that if the rights of adoptees were compromised away, we would withdraw our support and work to defeat any compromise proposed in its place. We do not support the amended version of HB 445 and request that all references to our support of HB 445 be removed. HB 445 2nd ed is not about rights. It's not even about reunions. It's about state power over the lives of adopted adults and their families.

The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutive ChambersState CapitolHonolulu, Hawai’i96813

RE: HB 1830: Safe Haven/”Safe Place for Newborns”—Please Veto

Dear Governor Lingle:

Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization urges you to continue to reject enactment of so-called “Safe Haven laws” in Hawai’i and to veto HB 1830. Bastard Nation agrees whole-heartedly with your June 20, 2003 veto statement in which you assert that “legalized abandonment” subverts hanai and traditional Hawai’ian family practice and values. “Safe Havens” endanger all families.

There is no epidemic of newborn abandonment and neonaticide in Hawai’i. Even “Safe Haven” proponents admit this. An archive search of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin indicates that since 1996 there has been one reported prosecutable newborn death (manslaughter in Koloa, Kaua’i) and no reported cases of unsafe newborn abandonment. What need then is there to legalize newborn abandonment when illegal abandonment doesn’t happen?

The mechanistic anonymous “Safe Haven” system of infant abandonment rejects the long-standing Hawai’ian cultural practice of extended family care. Moreover, HB 1830 rejects informed consent and best practice standards of child welfare such as the collection of a full record of identifying information and social and medical histories for children surrendered for adoption. HB 1830, with its promise of parental anonymity, eliminates the right of identity to those “surrendered” through “Safe Haven” programs, by denying them access to their original birth documents and heritage information.

HB 1830 denies parents--particularly non-surrendering parents (usually the father)--their right to due process by eliminating their ability to locate the dependency proceeding to which they are a party. HB 1830 replaces professional best practice standards with unprofessional and unethical "non-bureaucratic placement" by letting parents abandon solely for convenience or out of ignorance. The law preys on parents who honestly believe they are surrendering their child for adoption instead of providing evidence to be used in a dependency hearing at which they have a right and duty to appear. The law encourages parents literally to default at their hearings.

There is no evidence that “Safe Haven” laws have decreased unsafe abandonment or saved lives. A 2005 survey of county coroners in California, for example, found that the number of newborns dying from abandonment and neglect since 2001 remained at 13-15 per year in that state despite a well-publicized “safe haven” law.

Unfortunately, “Safe Haven” proponents have convinced legislators and parents that there are only two options: The Dumpster or the “Safe Haven.” The responsible alternatives to baby dumping are not mentioned: family care and communication, counseling, public assistance, temporary surrender, and permanent surrender for adoption, That omission keeps new and potential parents ignorant of real solutions.

Why “fix” something that isn’t broken—especially when the fix trivializes baby abandonment by presenting it as just another consumer choice? No blame. No shame. No name.

Anonymous baby dumping is not an acceptable cultural practice in Hawai’i now. No law should make it acceptable for the future.

Please veto HB 1830.

Yours truly,

Marley Elizabeth GreinerExecutive Chair

Bastard Nation is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America. We are dedicated to the recognition of the full human and civil rights of adult adoptees. We advocate the opening to adoptees, upon request at age of majority all government documents which pertain to the adoptee’s historical genetic and legal identity, including the unaltered birth original birth certificate and adoption decree.